#bank

Tomorrow, GM’s sick French partner PSA Peugeot Citroen will publish quarterly sales. They are expected to be très dégoûtant, and will set off a chain reaction: The credit rating agencies will put PSA’s already alarming rating down a notch further to near-dead status. Its captive financing arm BPF, a bank in its own right, will go down with the mothership. The bank’s rating is not allowed to stay more than two notches above the parent. This will drag the bank into junk bond territory, and borrowing costs will explode. The French government is here to help – for a price.